The Bushwhackers (film)

The Bushwhackers is a 1925 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford loosely based on Alfred Tennyson's 1864 poem Enoch Arden. It is considered a lost film.

For the 1952 American film, see The Bushwackers (film).

The Bushwhackers
Original theatrical poster
Directed byRaymond Longford
Produced byRaymond Longford
Lottie Lyell
Charles Perry
Written byRaymond Longford[1]
Lottie Lyell
Based onEnoch Arden by Alfred Tennyson
StarringStella Southern
Eddie O'Reilly
CinematographyArthur Higgins
Production
company
Longford-Lyell Productions
Distributed byAustralasian Films[2]
Release date
7 May 1925
CountryAustralia
LanguageSilent film
English intertitles

Plot

Bill Lawson (Eddie O'Reilly), a wharf labourer, loses his job and decides to go out bush to find work to support his wife Elsa (Stella Southern) and daughter Betty. He befriends a well-born Englishman, Kenneth Hillyard (Rawdon Blandford) after rescuing him from two thugs and the two decide to go prospecting together. They have a variety of adventures before stumbling upon a gold deposit. Then while walking along the cliffs one day Bill slips and falls into the river below. Kenneth looks for him but can't find the body and Bill is believed to be dead. Kenneth returns to the city to share the gold with Elsa and Betty. When Kenneth inherits money from an English relative, he proposes to Elsa.

Years later a bush character appears, 'Mad Joe', who is Bill – it turns out Bill survived the fall but lost his memory. He later regains his memory after a hospital operation and tracks down his wife. But once he sees how happy she is with Kenneth, he returns to the bush.[3]

Cast
  • Eddie O'Reilly as Bill Lawson
  • Stella Southern as Elsa Lawson
  • Beryl Gow as Bill's daughter
  • Rawdon Blandford as Kenneth Hillyard
  • Margaret Reid
  • Billy Ryan

Production

Actor Rawdon Blandford wrote a song especially for the film.[4] He later described this and other Australian films he made as "not great efforts" and criticised the quality of Australian directors.[5]

Co-star Eddie O'Reilly was a sometime boxer.[6]

Australasian Films bought the film outright from Longford and Lyell for its production cost.[7]

Reception

The critic from The Bulletin said

The photographer has done justice to^the excellence of Australian scenery for his purposes, but in other respects the picture is only saved from complete failure by the comedy touches. The story... wallows along under a large top hamper of irrelevances. There is a host of uninteresting characters to confuse the audience, and mawkish sub-titles crop up every few feet, with a wordy explanation of almost every movement... amateurish and disappointing.[8]

The critic from the Sydney Morning Herald said that the film's merits:

Lie mainly in its beauty of scenery and photography. There is no plot, as the word is commonly understood. The story simply meanders onward, without complication and without any very definite aim, so that it might be cut off almost anywhere without seeming incomplete... This narrative is embellished with a profusion of irrelevant detail... Characters appear In bewilding profusion, and in a moment or two are gone for ever. Through the midst flows a torrent of wordy subtleties, fully half of which could be eliminated with advantage to the picture... Those who appear before the camera make little pretence of acting, beyond a little buffoonery. Yet, all its weaknesses admitted, the film still retains the interest given it by pleasant comedy touches, and by clearly photographed studies of the harbour, the Blue Mountains, and the rolling f¡elds.[9]

References
  1. Copyright registration details at National Archives of Australia
  2. "Raymond Longford", Cinema Papers, January 1974 p51
  3. ""THE BUSHWHACKERS."". The Register. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 7 September 1925. p. 15. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  4. "NEW PALLADIUM THEATRE". The West Australian. Perth: National Library of Australia. 24 October 1925. p. 14. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  5. "AUSTRALIAN FILMS". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 3 November 1933. p. 8. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
  6. Eddie O'Reilly boxing record
  7. "THE PICTURES". The Argus. Melbourne: National Library of Australia. 29 October 1925. p. 7. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
  8. "STAGE AND SCREEN". The Daily News. Perth: National Library of Australia. 4 September 1925. p. 10. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  9. ""BUSHWHACKERS."". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 8 May 1925. p. 14. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
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